Trials & Tribulations - The drama of running a business and of life.It's not as easy as it looks. Running a business is full of drama. Customers, employees, money, family, time. You name it, it's a problem. Share with us your drama and how you handled it.

Crazy People

Trials & Tribulations - The drama of running a business and of life.

It's not as easy as it looks. Running a business is full of drama. Customers, employees, money, family, time. You name it, it's a problem. Share with us your drama and how you handled it.

I had a B&B Inn call me in the spring for mowing. When the lady called I told her I might make it out there today when I finished up. I ended up taking to long and called her back the following morning and she said she found someone.

Towards the end of summer I get a call from her again for mowing. I ask what happened to the last guy?
Ohh he stopped showing up.
Well theres 1 or 2 reason why either he wasnt being paid enough or wasnt being paid.
She says no thats not why hes probably in jail.
I say jail?
Yeah the guy before him was raided for selling drugs it happens.
Ok I'm thinking to myself what the hell kind of people is she hiring. I show up and say $90. She immediately shuts me down saying the last guy was $75 and thats all Ill pay.

I get a call today from her saying she needs a final mow. I say a mow or a leaf clean up?
She says a mow I raked the leaves up already. She then says dont you use a bagger?
I say no. I mulch and if theres to many leaves to mulch its a clean up.
She tells me again just a mowing.

So I show up and see the property filled with leaves. She actually raked the leaves out of the beds and left them all over the lawn. I just drove off.

Congrats man! You handled that well, and didn't forget to tell us the story!!!

Sounds like she's from my area, typical...

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However, this post made me very angry just thinking of how MESSED UP people can be.

Before I started my company, I thought most people were pretty decent.. Now, they are all cheap selfish fcks who will do anything to take advantage of someone else for their gain.

It's hard growing up and realizing that people actually really suck. I hate people.

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I wish I could legally make a video demonstrating how much b.s we guys put up with, because it's honestly a lot. Every phone call I receive, it's like no one can easily accept the price I've given - no, they have to make a big deal out of it!!!

When I tell a client my price and they say, "good, great, thanks!" ... I want to just hand them back their money and do the work for free and say, "I LOVE YOU". That's how rare it is.

ME:
Unfortunately, I am unable to provide this service for free as in previous
years.

The cost for our Leaf Removal service is $114.97 (tax included) and had
started November 1st, and will be ending November 16th.

Please let me know if you are still interested.

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CLIENT:
It surprised me that you charge me for the cleanup as last year you did provide this service for free by end of Oct. which was included in the usual monthly service in Oct. and we did paid you Oct. payment! You make us quite disappointed that you suddenly change the policy without further notice to us!

Anyway it will affect your credibility by doing things in this way.

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So... A client is p'd off because I'm charging for a service? LOLOLOLOLOL... Oh no, there goes my credibility! AAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Also, leaf removal has always been only available in November. October, we still cut grass. Crazy fcker....

Around June she contacted me, said she just bought a townhouse and wanted it cut. I gave her the quote of $25, biweekly. Shes happy with it. She then says she wants to get her backyard flower beds re-done and wants it to look nice. She also wanted patches in her lawn filled in. She says she knows nothing about lawns/landscaping, so whatever I thought was best. I came up with a quote and gave it to her. She said it was too high, no thanks.

Come July, she calls and wants me to meet her. She pays me for June, then says she wants the front edged and wants me to take care of the weeds. I say fine, it's an extra $5. Shes happy with it.

August she calls, and wants me to meet her again. She wants the same thing done she told me about in June, with the patches reseeded and filled in. I gave her the same price I did in June, and she says no thanks.

September was quiet, I didn't hear from her.

October invoice goes out and I get an email from her. Keep in mind this was AFTER the big storm, Sandy. I was just about to mow her lawn in a few days when shes says shes wants to cancel service. I ask her why, and I get this.....Because it looks like you didn't pick up the leaves last time you mowed (UMMMM HELLO?! Did you NOT see the 80MPH winds? They tend to blow leaves off trees...). When you edged my yard, I can see dirt. And because I need someone more professional at what they do because you never suggested anything as far as lawn treatments or reseeding and filling in the patches.

By that time I was out to dinner with my wife, a few beers deap, and laughed reading the email. Needless to say, by no means am I heartbroken over this one because shes a whack job.

Ok about 2 years ago I started cutting an elderly ladyís yard. It was in really bad shape when I started. We had to grind down 16 tree stumps fill in 4 holes that had standing water. We charged her a fair price. We have maintained her lawn ever since. We seed edge, keep the flower bed free of weeds. General lawn care.

I get a call last week from her stating that she no longer needs our service because she is upset about how driveway gets dirty between cuttings. I offer to blow it off once a week for her (Yes there is a charge) and remind her that it is fall. Her being a customer right at two years I donít want to lose her.

That wasnít good enough she didnít want to pay the extra charges for having her drive way bjíd. She got upset and hung up on me. So I sat there thinking about it and decided to drive by the house and look at the property, just in case the crew didnít do the job. Well the driveway looked good had a few little things on it so I got my blower out and blew it off real fast, thinking it might show good faith.

To make this short the lady called the police on me. OMFG I thought to myself!! I spoke to her and thought something was funny about her. Well last week her family admitted her into a home for alztimeters and started using me again. I mean I like having the property back but wow lol

Love hearing about those wacky crazy customers. I have one that is really really picky and a strong chatty Kathy. About a month/2 ago she bumped her head and went into this crazy spiral of anger which lasted a good month. We get to her yard and after we are done she says she is not happy with the way my guy is trimming (weed eating). This was never a problem. I tell her I'm really sorry and I go through personally and redo the trimming. She then proceeds to have an hour long conversation with me about how i'm messing up her whole lawn ect ect. I tell her I can't figure out what i'm doing wrong, since the service has been the same for the past 2 years.

At this point she is really getting angered and i'm just maintaining my cool telling her that i'm not the guy that treats her lawn. I'm only here to mow and have nothing to do with the problems she is having. The last thing she says to me is that we are making her tomatoes not grow properly. At that time i made the realization that this lady has started to go nuts. We leave the lawn on good terms.

The following week she calls me to apologize and say that she hadn't been herself lately and had been getting in a lot of arguements with people since here "injury" (she bumped her freakin head for gods sakes). I say no problem I understand and we're still mowing her lawn and she's nice as pie now.

I'm still thinking about dropping her next season cause I'm getting the impression that this lady is just a liability waiting to happen. She's definitely not worth the $35 I charge her when I get stuck talking for an hour or having to help her move things out of her car every week. The story is alot more involved but I've already written to much.

I wish I could legally make a video demonstrating how much b.s we guys put up with, because it's honestly a lot. Every phone call I receive, it's like no one can easily accept the price I've given - no, they have to make a big deal out of it!!!

You should keep the video camera running at all times. Maybe you could figure out how to blur people's faces. Boy oh boy would that be something to watch.